by Open mind 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
This is funny, I just issued a challenge to anyone who believes it's the last days on my channel.
Another good question to ask:
"I was reading about the An Shi Rebellion from the 14th century, did you know that more people died in this rebellion than in World War I? I always thought that World War I had the most casualties of any war previous to it, but apparently that's not right."
Hey there Billy the Ex, thanks for the extra "Conversation Stoppers".
Tuesday:
Do you have any references for that? I've already got the Black Plague for disease. This would be great for war.
om
One day as I was going along the road, I saw a man holding a sign, "The End is Nigh".
And he was right. When I went down the road the next day, he wasn't there.
Two Jehovah's Witnesses stand next to a mountain road with a huge banner in their hands:"The End is Near! Turn back, before it is too late!"A man drives by, pulls down the window and yells: "Stupid fundamentalists, go preach elsewhere!" Then he steps on it. A little later big screeching sound, and then a huge bang. One of the Jehovah's Witness turns round to his companion: "Brother, don't you think a "Rocks falling on the road" sign would be more appropriate?
Do you have any references for that? I've already got the Black Plague for disease. This would be great for war.
If you check it out online there's at least 12 different sites that are about it. If you go to any sites that have compilations of war casualties this one is right behind World War II, and it's actually only lower by something like 6 or 7 million. Which I think could actually be argued whether or not you count the holocaust as casualties of WWII or not. There's another war you can bring up in the Hundred Years War, it killed 20 million just on the French side. That doesn't include England and this is only a 20 year period of it as well. If you can convince people that percentages are far worse than the actual number then this is a great argument to prove that war was far more devistating back then.
LOL @ doug mason & teel!
Thanks for the extra info Tuesday, I'll take a look.
om
Very good trick
What really defines apocalyptic belief is not the idea that the world will at some time end, but that such and end is eminent and will soon be experienced. Yet what value is there to belief in an eminent end? Without having something "on the line", as the premise of this thread suggests", belief that the world as we know it is soon to expire means very little. As open mind poitns out, even JWs that argue "we have no date" actually do have relative dates fixed in their minds.
An interesting aspect to this involves the pracitice on individual members setting relative dates. Everybody in the group is encouraged to believe that the end is extrondinarly close, but must "make up the difference" in their own minds by creating boundries. I remember one JW even joking about this, saying that no matter what year it was we were always 12 years away from armageddeon.
Of course, the real goal for the preaching of eminence is rooted in the desire to change peoples behavior. The WTS is rather open about this, believing that they are saving lives.
